Storyboard week 13

I thought it would be neat to take one of Kendra's podcasts and have her speak over pictures of all the homestead blogs that I used in my paper. I am going to use the podcast in which she explains the many motivations of the modern homesteader. I am going to play it over a song by my friends (and also, homesteaders, the band Waterdeep) song, Cold. It feels organic and just seems to fit the vibe.

This is a screen shot of the first slide that will play. It will look like a photo album and then all the pictures will fade in , bounce in and out of the screen.

Archival Materials Week 10

I think I had a world of archival materials at my fingertips due to the nature of my fieldsite. Most everything I was digging into were blog posts anywhere from 2 months to 2 years old. I mentioned in my "intro" paper that I found a section on Kendra's website titles "The Adventures of Butterberry Farms" and it was amazing. It contained blogs that ran a course of 2 years and its documented the very beginnings of Kendra's journey into homesteading. It was really cool because I felt like I was witnessing her growth little by little as she became more literate in this culture. It was also really neat because when I first visited her website, I felt like she knew so much and she must have grown up that way or been doing it for so long so I think its an encouragement for her readers to have this on her blog. I think it helps them understand its a journey and a process and it takes time but that anyone can do it! All of the blog posts are pretty much archival items and our crucial to my research.

Lives on the Boundary week 11

Rose is speaking of a figurative boundary, a boundary that divides the poor and underprivileged from those with more resources. This book focuses on those who have been left behind, despite the huge amount of potential each one possesses, most times, simply, due to tests and evaluations that have assessed them as slow learners, problem students or remedial. 

Testing is one of the boundaries he talks about over and again. In his book he mentions a Hispanic student who failed first grade and after testing was put into the "developmental" classes for slow learners for the next 5 years. She said she couldn't even read and write. When her cousins, who had been in the country for awhile and could speak well, came over and asked her to read for them, she couldn't and they realized there was a real problem. All because of a test, one test, she was dubbed as remedial and she stayed there because her true potential as a learner and/or literate person was never tapped into, never given the chance to grow and develop. 

In regards to being "on the boundary," I think I have been privileged in being a student that, while we were typically struggling financially most all of my life, attended a great school. My dad made sure we were in one of the best suburban school districts in Central Columbus. I also am a Native speaker and I think because of both of these things I started off with an advantage in the school system. I am not sure that I really ever felt slighted or that I was "on the boundary."


I liked the book well enough but I think I felt pretty overwhelmed again. This is hard material to come face to face with. I think Rose is an encouragement of the potential that you can reach and that your ethnicity and socio-economic status shouldn't dictate your level of education because they don't affect whether a child has the capacity for learning.